Guess who's coming to party?

LYRobotix's UAV will have electronic "eyes" that will give the person operating it greater control in indoor spaces as it takes photographs and video footage.

"The drone we are working on will be able to take group pictures as well as 'selfies' from all different angles," she said.

But the idea to produce a small indoor drone was not Zhao's. She said an old high school friend and fellow co-founder Zhang Daoning came up with the project.

Now the chief executive officer of LYRobotix, Zhang became interested in the UAV market through his passion for model aircraft. He noticed that Chinese companies such as Dajiang Innovations Technology Co Ltd, or DJI, which is based in Shenzhen, were major global players when it came to hardware.

But he felt the software side of drones was still in its infancy here.

"So we have been working, since the beginning of the year, to develop a visual module, which can be installed on a UAV and can be operated through an app on a smart phone," Zhang, who has just graduated with a master's degree in computer science from the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said.

"It will be easier to operate the drone, which will be more stable," he added.

LYRobotix has already started working on designs for what will eventually become the miniature UAV and hopes to roll out a prototype in November.

After that, the plan is to link up with a manufacturing company, which they are still working on, to mass produce the drone. "That would be the main goal," said Ren, one of the co-founders.

Like his friend Zhao, he also put his postgraduate studies on ice at the University of Southern California in the US while he concentrates on LYRobotix.

"Apart from the consumer market, we also hope to interest police forces and agricultural companies as well as architects in our miniature UAV," Ren added.

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